On Sunday November 15,2020 ,which was the 63rd Presbyterian Church Day, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church In Cameroon (PCC),Rt. Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba ,delivered an important message not only to Presbyterians but to Cameroonians in general.
In his message, the Chief Shepherd noted that, despite threats directed at the PCC the Christian organization won't relent in pressing for a peaceful resolution of the Anglophone crisis.
Below is Rt. Rev. Fonki 's message:
" Fellow Presbyterians,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,
KEEP WATCHING!
Salutation
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”(Ps 118: 24). I bring you greetings of love, peace and comfort from the holy hill of the Synod Office in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ during this year’s celebration. I hope and pray that we will be celebrating under the strict observance of the COVID-19 barrier measures. Like the Apostle
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, may “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (2 Cor. 1: 3-5).
Appreciation
We thank many of you for the maturity and commitment demonstrated to our Church during the trying moments of the pre-electoral process from the congregations through the Presbyteries and to the Synod. This process, at some point, almost tore our Church apart, but God cannot be torn apart! Your spiritual maturity and commitment have kept our Church intact and moving forward to the “promised land,” despite her imperfections due to our own human imperfections. Jesus Christ, who is the head and body of His Church remains perfect and will always perfect his Church
We are the Church militant, this church is always the suffering and persecuted church, passing through all types of travails as she progresses to become the church triumphant. Ours is a liberal and inclusive Church that allows everyone to freely express his/her feelings. This may be a weakness as viewed by some people, but to others it is the unique strength of Protestantism. However, an over-protestant spirit must not be used to destroy our Church; it should rather be used to build and strengthen her.
May God continue to use each and every one of us, despite our weaknesses, as servants of love, forgiveness, justice, peace, reconciliation and progress! We are calling on all Presbyterians of goodwill to surrender to the cross every hate borne through the last season of elections. We virtually do not have problems with one another. We have chosen a system to select leaders; the application of that system brings out our weaknesses as human beings. It took about four years to heal the Church after the 1985 Synod election. This must not be so with us today. Let us throw away the anger and bitterness of the past and pray for peace in
subsequent elections. We cannot achieve anything with anger. We can never truly pray when we are angry.
We must also deeply acknowledge your love for us which was so overtly demonstrated by your unprecedented financial and material mobilization towards the Thanksgiving and Induction service of the Moderator and the Synod Clerk in March this year. Above all, you made generous financial donations toward the building of a new befitting Synod Office. We can now gladly announce to you that we have started the project.This new Synod Office project will carry the growing size of our operations, increase our credit worthiness and reflect the intention of our vision and mission.
Dear Presbyterians, silver and gold, we do not have to give you, but our prayers for you will remain your immeasurable portion of blessings. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his/her life for the leaders of his/her Church, and for the progress of his/her Church (Jn. 15:13 Paraphrased). May the good Lord replenish your resources a hundredfold so that you will be able to sponsor this project until its completion.
Context
The Covid-19 pandemic came to reiterate the fact that we are vulnerable as mortals, and also that only God can guarantee this life and human existence. As Christians, let us give God thanks in all circumstances because we know that whatever God permits, He has a reason for doing so. Some have died, many live in fear; others are affected socially and economically. As a church, we have not lost faith or hope. During the intense period of Covid-19, our home worship services achieved much for our members, lay ministries emerged, and family devotions were strengthened. There is every reason to deepen house fellowships and lay ministries in the Church. Who knows when another crisis will emerge wherein the ordained ministry shall be incapacitated? Only God knows what this pandemic has done to our faith.
The times have become so unpredictable that we now see ourselves increasingly just living each day at a time. This calls us to be alert, vigilant and faithful to our God, to be more dependent on Him as individuals and as a community of faith. The secret of Christian life is to be watchful and ready at all times. The word of the Lord says,”Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong”(1Cor. 16:13).
Furthermore, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Mt. 26:41a). This is not the time for us to surrender to the weaknesses of our flesh, but to invoke and stand on God’s strength.We must all keep watching against the plans of the evil one as we keep worshiping our Creator and Sustainer.
VISION
Our current mandate is pegged on the leitmotif, “Wake Up, Watch Out!” thus the theme of this celebration. On a spiritual and pastoral note, we will deepen our spiritual zeal and pastoral care. Emphasis shall be laid on e-worship, e-evangelism and e-fellowship. Today, we should be able to get the gospel to people who do not attend church services. We are calling on all urban congregations to setup communication structures and digital equipment to ease the communication of the Gospel. We appreciate the PCC Online Daily Devotional, the PCC TV Channel on you-tube, daily meditations from our Pastors, MY PCC applications containing the Church Hymnary and the Daily Bible Readings and Dairy.
The details of our vision were articulated during our stakeholders’ training workshop. I bring to you an excerpt of it:
Economically and socially, we shall continue with our investment policy towards self-sufficiency. The Financial Secretary has stated this in the Corporate Resource Empowerment Plan (CREP)… Remember our watchword SLEM: “Spend Less, Evangelize More” and other economic policies like;“one congregation, one farm”, “from self-reliance to self-sufficiency”, from minimal to optimal exploitation of resources”. It is in this light that PC Bonamoussadi- Douala, is constructing a Secondary School under something like a public -private partnership scheme. PC Bastos, Yaounde has invested in real estate at the Nyom neighbourhood. PC Azire, Bamenda has invested in shopping stores around their church compound. We would have been happier to hear that Dikome and Akwaya Presbyteries now own sizeable cocoa and „bush mango‟ farms respectively – this is how we should be thinking (Keynote address at StakeholdersTraining Workshop,September 2,Buea).
The State of Our Mission
This year’s celebration of world day of peace was unique. It was meant to revive our pursuit for peace in the ongoing crisis in the North West and South West regions. We thank God for the mammoth turnout and for the clarity of our message for peace. The PCC has done all that is required to bring about justice, peace, love, forgiveness, reconciliation, reason and sanity to end this senseless war of attrition to no avail. If our hands could reach the stop button to press and justly end this war, we would have long done so as a Church. Our role is more of advocacy; praying and soliciting for peace and justice, and we have reached out to every major stakeholder in this armed conflict nationally and internationally. The Church can’t do more than she is able to do, but we will not relent, despite the abuses and threats directed at us. We will continue to intensify our humanitarian activities and visits to the refugees and IDPs more often during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic.
One unshakeable truth is that those who do not value human life and protect it as sacred, but destroy it are either murderers or oppressors of God’s children. Such can never be supported by the Church and her leaders. The Church is apolitical as she is the eyes, mouth, soul, mind, heart, and hand of God in every nation and place on earth. By these uncompromised principles of the Church, we shall not take sides in this struggle; we will stand strong against human rights violations, pursue peace and stability, and protect the livelihoods of the oppressed. The church listens and follows the voice and counsel of her founder - Jesus the Christ. Therefore no one will be able to influence us to act otherwise.
We re-emphasize our call to our Government to continue inclusive dialogue and bring this conflict to a just end; it is her responsibility. Let us get into the bushes and bring out our brothers and conscientize them to heed to peace that benefits their own people. We call on the Government to speed up the reconstruction process and to release more prisoners in the different cells. Meanwhile, congregations are called upon to continue caring for the internally displaced persons. Nothing is too small for someone who is hungry. The Apostle Paul exhorts us, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Gal. 6: 9-10).
Despite the difficulties and challenges faced by the educational sector of our Church, both the resilient, devoted and sacrificial teachers and students of our schools have given us reasons to smile and keep marching on with hope by the end of course excellent results at the primary, secondary and high school levels at the just ended 2019/2020 academic year. The following six Presbyterian Education Authority schools scored 100% at the Ordinary Level; PCSS Buea, PSS Bafut, PCSS Mfou Yaounde, PCHS Limbe and PHS Nkambe. Meanwhile the following four schools scored 100% at the Advanced Level; PCSS Buea, PSS Douala, PCSS Azire and PHS Kumba. We give God the glory for our exceptional teachers and congratulate them for a job well done. You remain the models of our Church’s workforce.
We have not relented and will never relent in our effort to give solace to our brethren sacrificing for our Church and for humanity, and performing a noble duty within our educational sector. We had initiated a payment plan and have paid more than 90% of the accrued salaries of our teachers because of the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions which forced them out of work.
The advent of the coronavirus that abruptly caused the shutdown of the rest of our schools was a big challenge that added to the load we were already grappling with. To cope with the unexpected exigencies of the pandemic, we had initially reduced the allowances and salaries, not only of our teachers, but also that of all the workers of our Church. With the payment of the special subventions to schools by the Government during this COVID-19 pandemic, we are paying the balances of the curtailed allowances and salaries to our teachers.
We are at an advanced stage in the construction of the Inclusive Child-Eye and Pediatric hospital in Limbe. Plans have been completed to start the construction of a state-of-the art hospital complex in Bamenda. We are about completing the construction of an Oxygen Plant at the Inclusive Child-Eye and Pediatric hospital in Limbe. Make no mistake, these projects are sponsored by our Partners who have found our leadership worthy.
The Presbyterian General Hospital in Kumba now is the referral hospital within that city and its environs. Doctors Without Borders are using this health facility to provide healthcare to the victims of war within that part of the South West region. Given the demands on this health facility, we are expanding it to handle the demands.
This year, we have completely refurbished and redesigned the Youth Center in Limbe and effectively equipped it with machines, computers, sowing lab and kits amongst others, to empower our youths with tailoring, catering, information and communication technologies, and hair dressing skills. The center was opened in September this year and is operational. We intend to refurbish the other existing Youth Centers in the days ahead.
Today, we own and are running, the PRES MICROFINANCE (PRESMFI) institution – category 2 – with headquarters in Buea. Other branches have been prospected for the North West and other parts of the country. These social ventures will create employment opportunities to young Cameroonians and help grow our church.
As a complementary factory to our PRESPRINT in Limbe, we completed the structure to house the machines for our Paper Conversion and Processing Plant adjacent the PRESPRINT. The setting up of the machines for operation is ongoing.
In the midst of all the challenges we are facing, we have not just hopelessly folded our arms, but have continued to exploit any and every available opportunity to give a facelift to our Church, and lay a solid and great foundation for her future. We would be doing a great service to our Church if we become part of these investments and activities intended to give our Church, not just a stable financial base for greater and transforming evangelization, but also to ensure our financial independence and self-sufficiency. As a post-diamond Jubilee Church, let us claim these investment projects, own them, talk about them, be proud of them and patronize them. They are the institutions and property of your Church, not those of any leader or individual of the Church because the leaders and individuals come and go, but the PCC remains.
Conclusion
Everything that is happening around us challenges us not to slumber, but to stay awake and keep watching. Watching calls us to be as wise as serpents and as humble as doves. We must keep watching by praying fervently for divine strength, protection, wisdom and deliverance from the forces of oppression and destruction in our society. We must also continue to be one another’s keeper by reaching out to the suffering and displaced brethren around us.
We will not remain inactive, but continue on our path of progress and seeking justice, peace, love, care, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, deliverance and the ultimate good of our Church, country and humanity; while keeping watch and abiding in His wisdom and strength!
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. Rom 15:5-6).
May God keep and bless you all,
May God keep and bless the PCC,
May God keep and bless our country!
Happy Celebrations.
Yours for the Sake of the Faith,
Rt. Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba
Moderator, PCC
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